6.1 FEASIBILITY CHECKING

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Feasibility Checking is a very close relation to cost estimation but in this case you have the estimates for cost and the planned duration contained in the project plans and you want to assess the probability of achieving those estimates.

Given the relationship to cost estimation it should come as no surprise to find that you can manipulate the public domain models to get this kind of feasibility check. In its most simple form the check is performed by plotting effort or duration against size, holding all other variables such as programmer skills constant, and then seeing if the estimates for your project at its given estimated size lie above the plotted line. If they do then you are, according to the model used, in the feasible region. If your estimates lie below the line you have a problem. Putting it diplomatically, you plan to do your project more effectively than the model predicts you will. Remember that you need to use a model calibrated to your environment. More sophisticated models can be set up, based on industry data or your own experiences and there is an obvious potential here for automating those models.

Of course, you may wish to apply a more humanistic approach to feasibility checking. There is no reason why project plans should not be reviewed or inspected just like any other deliverable. These plans should satisfy two requirements. They should be complete in that everything that is expected is present, for example, the Critical Path if that is normally used. They should also be, in the opinion of the reviewers, feasible. This may mean discussing the assumptions that underlie the estimates and also implies that the review team should have project management experience.

So you see that both simple and sophisticated techniques do exist to administer this aspect of project control but if you have a plan that looks good, what about when things go wrong? That brings us to Risk Management.

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